End Game

by Lindsay Buroker

  “True,” Leonidas said.

  “Ideally, I’d like Stanislav back, and I’d like to keep Tiang, so he can work on whatever medical weapon he’s creating. Is that too greedy?”

  “The Alliance believes so.”

  “That’s because they’re being asteroid kissers.”

  “I will not disagree.” He smiled slightly, probably because she was denigrating the Alliance. She would have to denigrate the empire later, just so he knew she wasn’t switching sides.

  Alisa punched in the last contact information she had for Tomich. If he was still back on Arkadius, or wherever they had been holding him when they’d taken him off his ship, it would take a while to reach him.

  “Tomich,” she said, recording a message, “it’s your favorite freighter captain again. If you have any sway with anyone right now, I would appreciate it if you made an offer to your superiors for me. If they will give Stanislav Schwegler to me with no strings attached, I’ll tell you where Tymoteusz and the Staff of Lore are. Just you. I want you out here to deal with, not this obtuse brick, Admiral Agosti. Marchenko, out.”

  “Has something changed in the last hour?” Leonidas asked curiously. “Have you learned where they are?”

  “No, but that message will take a while to get back. I figure we have a day or two to find out where Tymoteusz and the staff are.”

  “Ah. Then we had better hope that Solstice can, indeed, offer us some intelligence on the matter.”

  Alisa was hoping Bravo Six would come up with the answer and that they wouldn’t need anything from Solstice, but she couldn’t bet everything on that. She tapped the controls, adjusting the Nomad’s course to pointedly go around the warship while continuing on to Cleon Moon.

  Chapter 3

  Alisa helped Alejandro load Ostberg onto the hover board that Ostberg had used to carry Durant onto the Star Nomad in the very dome they were once again inside. When they had approached the entrance, the air traffic controller had not stopped them or even commed Alisa to say hello. Even though Alisa knew Leonidas had sent word that they were coming, the ease with which they had flown in made her nervous. As had the fact that Solstice had not, when he asked, been willing to disclose the nature of the favor she needed over the comm.

  A squawk came from the corridor outside sickbay. Several chickens had escaped the coop and were monitoring Ostberg’s progress. Alisa hoped they wouldn’t try to follow him to the medical facility.

  “It’ll be good for the kid to be able to rest somewhere without all that bawking,” Alejandro grumbled.

  Alisa brushed Ostberg’s shaggy blond bangs away from his closed eyes. He’d woken a few times in the last few days, but had been in enough pain that Alejandro had knocked him out again. She wished she had thought to trim his hair while he had been unconscious.

  “Have any of the Starseers gotten in touch with his parents?” Alisa asked, glancing toward the hatchway.

  Abelardus stood there with his staff—he and a couple of the others were going to escort Ostberg to a hospital and glower fiercely to ensure he received proper treatment. Alisa suspected money would do more to ensure proper treatment than glowers in the dome that Solstice’s mafia family ran, but she didn’t know how much of that the Starseers had. They certainly hadn’t been paying her much for their passage and all the food they were eating. She didn’t mind feeding the children, but the adults tended to irk her more often.

  “Yes,” Abelardus said, “but we weren’t able to tell them where he was being taken for sure until now, so it’ll be several days before they can get out here. But I’m sure they’ll come.”

  “Is someone going to stay with him until they get here?” Alisa knew she should let the Starseers worry about him—his parents had apparently signed him up willingly to be tutored by them—but after having him aboard for the last few weeks, she felt responsible for him. He’d even helped them escape those treasure-hunting androids in the asteroid belt.

  “I’ll ask,” Abelardus said. “Do you know yet how long we’ll be on Cleon Moon?”

  “Too long.”

  He lifted his eyebrows.

  “I don’t know,” Alisa said, “but I don’t think this is the kind of place where you want to leave your wallet and shoes sitting on a chair unguarded while you snooze in a regen tank.”

  “You think the highly trained medical staff would rifle through his belongings?”

  “When the medical staff is owned by the mafia, yes. And I don’t think we know much about how trained they are.”

  “Maybe the chickens can come along and watch after him.”

  “Maybe your brother can go. He owes Ostberg for watching over him when he was unconscious.” Normally, Alisa wouldn’t have volunteered Durant for anything regarding protecting minors, but Ostberg had been loyal to him for some reason. She assumed he was less of a worm suck when he was with other people. Besides, she wanted him off her ship. This seemed as good a place to leave him behind as any.

  Abelardus squinted suspiciously at her, but all he said was, “I’ll ask him.”

  Alisa stepped back as Alejandro navigated the hover board through the hatchway, barely making it without scraping the jamb. The chickens protested vehemently as the strange object floated out. Wings flapped, and feathers flew.

  Alisa stepped out into the corridor to follow and almost ran into a red-armored shoulder.

  “I’m heading out to meet Solstice,” Leonidas said, nodding to her.

  He hadn’t invited her to go along. What would he say if she announced that she would accompany him?

  “In full armor?” Alisa tapped his red forearm as Abelardus and Alejandro continued toward the cargo hold with Ostberg. “Is that because you anticipate trouble in the city or because you want to look good for Solstice?”

  “Does my armor make me look good? I thought it made me scary.”

  “Solstice seems oddly immune to being scared. Maybe because she has all those androids around to act as bodyguards. I assume she’s never seen what you can do to androids. Once she collects a few of their body parts off her roof, she may grow warier.”

  He grunted and turned toward the cargo hold.

  “Leonidas?” she called, stopping him. The others had disappeared, leaving them alone in the corridor. “What do you think I should do about Stanislav? And Tiang?”

  “Leave the hatch locked in case the Alliance comes after Tiang in the next two hours. I’ll try to make this meeting as short as possible.”

  “I was thinking more about a possible rescue mission.”

  “For Stanislav? Or are you positive I’ll need rescuing from Solstice?”

  “For Stanislav. You better not need rescuing from her.”

  “You’re not thinking of storming aboard a heavily armed and patrolled Alliance warship, are you?” Leonidas asked.

  “No, I was thinking of sneaking aboard a heavily armed and patrolled Alliance warship.”

  “It’s hard to sneak aboard a warship in space. There’s not a lot out there to conceal your approach.”

  “My plan is still in the formative stages.”

  “Let’s see what Solstice wants first,” he said, heading toward the hold. “Maybe she’ll have the information you promised the Alliance that you have, and be willing to trade.”

  “Let’s? As in, let us? Am I invited along?”

  Leonidas paused and looked down at her. “I assumed you would come whether I invited you or not.”

  “You did? Because you think I’m the kind of woman who wouldn’t be confident enough to let you go off to meet another woman unsupervised?”

  “Because you’re nosy and will burn with curiosity if you can’t come.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s true.” She held up a finger. “Wait here. I’ll get my stun gun.”

  Alisa ran back to her cabin, in case he was, despite his words, entertaining notions of leaving without her. If Solstice was up to something dodgy, she wanted to be there to help Leonidas out of whatever spider web she entangl
ed him in.

  “Sure, that’s it,” she muttered, grabbing her holster with her stun gun and multitool off the back of her desk chair. “It has nothing to do with being nosy.”

  She found Leonidas waiting in the cargo hold next to the open hatch. The ramp was extended, and Alejandro, Durant, and Abelardus were heading down with Ostberg’s hover board. Durant carried a bag over his shoulder, as well as his usual staff. Alisa didn’t bother to repress a surge of glee that he was leaving. Maybe she would get lucky and never see him again.

  Such an inhospitable host, you are. Abelardus looked over his shoulder at her.

  Alisa might have replied, but Jelena and two boys ran out from the Starseer camp and waved after the men.

  “Goodbye, Erick,” Jelena called. “I’ll feed the chickens!”

  Erick? Was that Ostberg’s first name? Alisa tried to remember if she had known that.

  Tut, tut, Abelardus told her. Inhospitable and unobservant.

  I’m sure he would have told me his first name if he wanted me to use it. Keep insulting me, and I’ll take off before you come back.

  And deny me the honor of riding around in a dilapidated freighter that clanks every time it turns to port?

  The Nomad does not clank.

  It does if you’re down in the cargo hold while it’s in the air.

  Alisa frowned. She might have to check with Mica about that.

  I would miss Beck’s cooking, Abelardus said, still speaking to her, even though the group had turned onto the busy dock promenade and nearly disappeared from view.

  Who wouldn’t? Alisa replied, before whistling from behind distracted her.

  Beck was using a hand tractor to bring the first of his boxes down to the cargo hold.

  “You better let Leonidas slay some dinosaurs while we’re here,” he told her. “This is going to be a big CargoExpress bill.”

  Alisa started to ask Leonidas how he felt about that, but a tug at her sleeve turned her focus in another direction.

  “Where are you going?” Jelena asked, frowning at Alisa’s faded flight jacket.

  “Hopefully to get information on where Tymoteusz is. On where Thorian is.”

  “Can I come? I can help.”

  Alisa shook her head. “It’ll probably be dangerous. You stay here with the others.” She waved toward Beck rather than the Starseers. She preferred having Jelena spend time with people she knew and trusted, even if they couldn’t teach her special Starseer things. “I bet Beck will let you help him get his order ready for pickup.”

  “Whoa, Captain. You sure know how to entice a kid with excitement.” Beck winked at Jelena.

  Alisa wished Leonidas would try to befriend Jelena, too, but he was standing in his armor, his back to them as he gazed out toward the promenade. A crimson statue on her deck. Jelena might have rejected any overtures of friendship he made anyway. So far, since she’d witnessed Alisa kissing Leonidas in sickbay, she’d gone out of her way to avoid him.

  “I figured you’d have some cookies in one of those boxes,” Alisa said, “and that she could use her mental powers to lift one from its spot.”

  “Mom,” Jelena said sternly. “This is serious. I can help. I can find out things when people are thinking them. Ask Lady Westfall. I’m getting really good!”

  Lady Westfall walked away from the group of Starseers—they had stopped their tutoring session when the children ran off to bid Ostberg farewell. Gray-haired and prim looking, she headed toward Alisa and Jelena. Alisa held back a grimace. Between piloting the ship and spending the first few days in sickbay, she hadn’t said more than a handful of words to the woman since she boarded. Of course, the woman hadn’t gone out of her way to say anything to Alisa either. Still, she ought to sit down and have a conversation with her eventually, especially if Westfall was the one choosing her daughter’s curriculum. But this wasn’t the time.

  Leonidas’s helmet swiveled toward her. He didn’t say anything, but she probably needed to hurry up if she wanted to go with him. Was that the right thing to do? Could she truly help with Solstice, or would it be better to stay here with Jelena?

  “Come, Jelena,” Westfall said, extending a hand toward the camp. “Your telepathy skills are rudimentary. We will work on them while your mother is gone.”

  “My skills are good. This morning, I talked the chickens into walking in a circle for treats. I can help.” Jelena stepped back from her and turned imploring eyes toward Alisa. “Why can’t I come help? You’re not taking a Starseer, and I could help if the lady you’re seeing knows anything she doesn’t tell you.”

  Alisa didn’t point out that she hadn’t told Jelena they were going to see a lady. Her telepathy skills seemed just fine.

  “You’d take Erick,” Jelena said. “He’s told stories about how he got to blow stuff up and help with bad androids.”

  “He’s older.” And tall enough to pass as an adult. Alisa had thought him closer to eighteen than fourteen the first time they met.

  “A Starseer might be useful to you in an interview,” Westfall pointed out.

  “But not an eight-year-old one,” Alisa said, starting to feel ganged up on.

  “No. An adult.”

  “You don’t need an adult,” Jelena said. “You need me. Thor’s my friend.”

  “I know he is,” Alisa said, resting a hand on her shoulder. Jelena looked at it sulkily. “I’m glad he’s your friend and that you care.”

  Westfall frowned at Jelena, and it looked like some silent communication passed between them. Jelena crossed her arms over her chest, hunched her shoulders, and stomped over to join the adults. Leonidas was still watching, and Alisa flushed. Watching tantrums, even if this had been a reserved one, might not do much to endear him toward the idea of fatherhood. Would he rethink his plans for a family?

  “I wouldn’t mind Young-hee’s help if she’ll come,” Alisa said, when she noticed Westfall still standing there, looking like she had something to say.

  “Good,” Westfall said. “Come, children,” she added, waving the other boys away from the hatch. “We have studies to attend to.”

  “I hope you don’t mind,” Alisa murmured to Leonidas. “She made a good point. Someone with telepathy might be useful.”

  “More useful if she weren’t wearing Starseer robes and announcing what she is,” Leonidas said, nodding toward Young-hee.

  She grabbed her staff and headed toward them.

  “They don’t seem to do incognito,” Alisa said.

  “It’s more that none of us have spare clothes,” Young-hee said. “Tymoteusz did not give us time to pack before taking over the temple. Chasadski are rude.”

  “I’ve heard that.”

  Leonidas nodded at Young-hee and started down the ramp. Jelena was looking at them, so Alisa waved toward her as she headed out. Jelena hesitated, and Alisa thought she would ignore her, but she waved back grudgingly.

  Don’t get hurt, Mom, her voice sounded in Alisa’s mind.

  I’ll try not to. Alisa kept her response short since she didn’t know if Jelena could hear her words the way Abelardus did. Was that a more advanced skill?

  Of course I can hear them. I told you, I’m good. Don’t listen to Lady Westfall. She never admits anyone is good.

  Sorry, she hasn’t given me a report card, so I don’t know how to gauge your goodness.

  Mom, Starseers don’t get report cards. Amazing how the exasperated tone of a kid could come through a telepathic link.

  Never? What if I request one? So I have something to hang on the fridge in the kitchen.

  I could draw you a picture for the fridge. Like I used to do.

  Something about the answer made Alisa think that maybe she should ask for a report card. She shouldn’t wash her hands of Jelena’s Starseer education, just because she knew so little about it.

  A picture of us would be nice, she replied.

  Dad too?

  Yes.

  “Alisa?” Leonidas asked from the promenade.
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  We’ll talk later. Thank you for staying with Westfall. Alisa hurried down the ramp.

  “Sorry,” she told Leonidas and Young-hee. “Didn’t mean to delay you. Important report card discussion.”

  “Someone is waiting for us.” Young-hee pointed past people striding along the docks with shopping bags or hover boards full of supplies to where two androids in black uniforms with silver piping, Solstice’s house colors, stood waiting.

  From the way Leonidas was staring at them, they had been sizing each other up for a minute or two. As soon as Alisa joined him, he strode straight toward them.

  “Maybe I should have worn my armor,” Alisa murmured.

  “The blue stuff?” Young-hee asked. “Why didn’t you?”

  “Last time, Solstice’s androids insisted that I leave my weapons before going into her compound. I figured the rules wouldn’t have changed.” Alisa didn’t mention that Leonidas hadn’t been asked to remove his weapons and armor on their previous visit. Solstice had been trying to recruit him for a security position, so he’d gotten the friendly treatment.

  “Then I suppose it’s a good thing all I have is this trusty walking stick,” Young-hee said, leaning on her staff as she walked at Alisa’s side.

  Alisa snorted. “Good luck getting an android to believe that. I haven’t found them to be very gullible.”

  The androids did not say anything as Leonidas approached, but they parted to walk beside Alisa’s little group. To surround her little group. Maybe she should have brought Bravo Six for extra support, even if he wasn’t a combat model. But she wanted him to figure out where Tymoteusz was. Someone had to give her a lead.

  “No, sir,” one of the androids said when Leonidas tried to turn down a street, apparently not on the approved route back to the compound.

  Leonidas’s eyes narrowed behind his faceplate, but he obeyed the android’s redirection.